PSP Pandora's Battery - Software and Tutorial

by: jq.net

Publication date: 2009-04-07

Topics: hacking, modding, homebrew, psp, sony playstation portable, pandora's battery, tutorial, utilities, tools, custom firmware

Language: English

This archive contains a tutorial along with some software.

The tutorial explains how to create a "Pandora's Battery" which is a reversible software modification of the battery used in a Playstation Portable game system. This modification allows the PSP to boot into a "factory service" mode enabling the installation of any firmware. A battery altered like this is sometimes called a "Jigkick Battery."

To actually install firmware, a "Pro Duo" memory stick is also needed, which is the proprietary memory stick that the PSP used. This memory stick needs to be formatted in a special way so that the Pandora's Battery can use it to install the firmware stored on it. A memory stick prepared in this way is often referred to as a "Magic Memory Stick."

The software included with this archive is the same software featured in the tutorial. This particular set of software enables installing Firmware version 5.00. Both official firmware, and custom firmware. A "custom" firmware is an unlocked version of a firmware that allows homebrew to run on the PSP.

Original Tutorial
https://www.qj.net/qj-howto-4-is-opening-the-box-making-pandoras-battery/

Addeddate: 2019-11-16 02:25:38

Identifier: PSP_creating_pandora_battery

Ocr: ABBYY FineReader 11.0 (Extended OCR)

Ppi: 600

Scanner: Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4

Year: 2009

plus-circle Add Review

comment
Reviews

Reviewer: humbird0 - - February 26, 2020
Subject: This is not the only way to hack a PSP

A better way
These days, the easiest way to run homebrew on a PSP is using the "CFW Pro" custom firmware which comes with two homebrew programs that can either temporarily or permanently enable unsigned apps to run. Full details can be found in this guide:
http://wololo.net/cfw4dummies/

The guide's download link for that custom firmware (PRO CFW 6.60 C2) is currently broken, but the Wayback Machine has a copy of it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141227140121/http://procfw.googlecode.com/files/660PRO-C2.rar

Pandora Battery can still work
The older Pandora Battery method can still work, but it requires specialized hardware (the modified battery) and a compatible motherboard. A stock battery can be modified to act as a pandora battery by running a homebrew program on an older PSP.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/to-make-pandora-battery-with-psp-3000.507404/

Hacking isn't always needed
Some homebrew programs can run on a stock PSP without needing custom firmware. This is because the master encryption key was eventually discovered allowing homebrew programmers to "sign" their code exactly like official software. However the vast majority of PSP homebrew is un-signed code because those programs were written before this discovery.

4,733 Views

4 Favorites

1 Review